Tigers break out in a big way, demolish Twins 13-1

We're not going to waste your time here. Mike Pelfrey was terrible from the word "go," granting the Tigers a 3-0 lead in the first. He'd go on to allow two more runs and wouldn't get through the fifth inning.

The bullpen was asked to pick up the slack, but they didn't do a great job. Brian Duensing was charged with three runs in two-thirds of an inning, and Ryan Pressly got the last two outs of the sixth as the Twins' only pitching bright spot of the day. Poor J.R. Graham was left to get through the last six outs and was taken deep by both Miguel Cabrera and Bryan Holaday, and ended up taking the brunt of Detroit's frustrations to the tune of another five spot.

With Anibal Sanchez pitching, Minnesota would have had to put together a pretty good game to have a chance of winning. That obviously didn't happen. The Tigers went deep four times (Cabrera twice). Sanchez was a lot more like the pitcher we're used to him being, as he rolled over the Twins with nine strikeouts. Five hits in eight innings against Sanchez is sort of like a moral victory I guess.

In the big picture, the Twins went 1-2 in Detroit and were much more competitive than the last time these two clubs met. Minnesota now has three games at home with the Rays before a short two-game series in Pittsburgh and then the White Sox again next weekend. If they can win five of those eight games it'll have been a good stretch.

Time to turn the page. We'll have another shot at the Tigers in early July.

Studs

Duds